Tag: fuck you hack

If You’re ‘Hate Reading’ This Blog, Please Spare Me Your Critique


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m not perfect. I don’t claim to be. But, as they say, “If you ain’t got haters, you ain’t poppin.” My default assumptions when it comes to anyone reading this blog is they’re people either looking to “steal” my novel’s concept, they think I’m both “delusional and stupid” or they think I’m an Internet crank who should “maybe try to write a short story.”

And we haven’t even gotten to the MAGA Neo-Confederates I assume read this blog because they get to stroke one out to my dark fears for the Republic.

Anyway, if you’re actually here because you’re a normal person interested in my life, then welcome.

If you’re not, then, well, fuck you.

Things Are Going Well For (At The Moment) With The Novel



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, things are moving fast with the novel right now. I hope to wrap up the outline no later than around the July 4th weekend. After that, I will start writing against in earnest.

I’m doing a huge amount of reading as well.

I probably have about 30 books to read and it’s unlikely I’ll read all of them, even if I read really fast. But I’m glad that I am, at last, doing what you’re supposed to do — if you’re writing, you’re reading.

There’s so much I don’t know about the process of actually getting a novel published. Maybe someone is going to “steal” my concept, or steal a march on me. That’s all very possible. But I know enough about how to tell a story now that after I stop sulking, should that happen, that I can use what I’ve learned to dive back into a new story pretty quick.

But I love, love, love this novel’s concept. I love the characters and I love the “big ideas” that it’s going to address.

I am still very nervous that someone is reading this blog with the hopes of “cherry-picking” what they can from it for their own, similar project. But, for me at least, what I’m doing on this blog is part of the developmental process of the project. You’re not supposed to be totally miserable when you create art, at least, not if you can help it.

Of Someone Writing A Screenplay Inspired From My Development Writing Online



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I vacillate dramatically from assuming that, of course, someone is going to use all my development on this Website to write a screenplay that “steals” my idea to wondering, how, exactly, they would do it.

I guess you could get the general gist of the concept if you looked at what I’ve been writing about and talking about the last 18 months, but even if you did do that, your interpretation of the concept and mine would likely be dramatically different.

I keep seeing people poking around this Website in my Webstats and that alarms me because I assume that of course my worst fears are being realized. And, yet, really, the idea I am working on is so expansive and ambitious that a screenplay would be, by definition, dramatically different than the novel I’m writing.

If I had, like, friends and stuff, then this wouldn’t be an issue. I would talk to them about what I’m working on and I wouldn’t have this problem. My only hope is that even if people were actively stealing from me at this point, it would still take actual physical time to develop the screenplay. And the subject matter of this novel is such that I find it dubious that even if someone could somehow accurately reverse-engineer the concept from what I’ve done here, I’m not so sure they would actually steal the story beat-for-beat.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe that’s exactly what’s happening.

But I’m of the opinion that you make decisions on what you know, not on what you don’t know. I could just give up and assume someone is going to steal this concept from me, or I can work harder and faster so at least I finish something sooner rather than later.

If you are trying to “steal” my story — fuck you, you hack.

I Have To Prepare Myself For Someone Stealing A March On Me Creatively



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but I get the feeling someone is thinking about writing something — probably a screenplay — inspired by the novel I’ve been working on for about 18 months now.

I can either give up or work harder and faster.

I’m going to work harder and faster.

There’s little more I can do. I guess, should the worst happen, I can console myself by saying at least I understand how to tell a story better. The reason why it’s taken me so long to get to this point is the story I’ve come up with is a lot of plot and I should have been thinking about character.

The story is convoluted and complicated and it’s taken me this long to figure out how to tell it is a simple way. I love this story and its characters. Even if I wake up tomorrow and a movie is being produced that is essentially my novel, at least I’ll be better off as a storyteller than I was when I started this process.

But that hasn’t happened….yet.

I can use this fear as a reason to work harder and faster and see what happens.